Climate Change Affecting Bees

Biodiversity creates an interconnected system where each part builds off of one another to create a functional ecosystem. For example, a small insect such as a bee is critical for survival of many other species because it pollinates so many plants. Currently, the population of bees is dramatically decreasing due to anthropogenic actions such as using harmful pesticides. If the population of bees go extinct, so many species would follow because they would not get pollinated. This is problematic because humans do not have the time or the funds to replicate the vital work of the bee.

The honey bee is vital to an estimated $117 billion annual production of crops through pollination within the United States more than a half of the food that humans consume has a correlation with the bee either directly or indirectly. The USDA reports the following food products would be immediately damaged if no bees were available to pollinate:

Since the late 1990s, beekeepers around the world have observed the mysterious and sudden disappearance of bees, and report unusually high rates of decline in honeybee colonies. Bees do more than just make honey! Bee transfer pollen and seeds from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant so it can grow and produce food. Cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90% affects our food. The sweet fruits humans eat such as, strawberries, mangoes, grapes, apples, and bananas would not be the same taste wise as they are now. We simply couldn’t live in the same world if it weren’t for the bees.

In centuries, the honey bee has a very important role in our agriculture. According to Watanabe, Honey bee approximately benefits $10 billion of crops, including almonds, apples, and alfalfa every year in the United State (Pollination Worries rise As Honey Bees Decline, 1170). In addition, The National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) had estimated 2660 million honey producing colonies in 2015 (2017). Based on honey bees’ behavior, they can expand nearly all habitable corners of the globe which made them highly adaptable species (Dennis, 80). With adaptable capability and high productivity, our beekeepers can able to maintain their life

The honey bee is the substructure of the human population. It is imperative that the world knows about the decline of honey bees and work together to save the honey bee population. Nearly one-third of the world's crops are dependent on honeybees, but over the last decade the black and yellow insects have been dying at an unexpected rate in the United States. Pesticides, disease, poor weather, and the stress of being taken from one orchard to another to pollinate different crops all play a role in the decline of the honey bee. The honey bee as a species is not in danger of extinction, but a large portion of our food supply is, because the honey bee no longer has the ability to support the industry of commercial pollination. Without honey

Bees provide one of the biggest natural service in various ecosystems that are responsible for crop growth and production especially in California.

Honey bees in America are disappearing at a rapid rate but yet their is no solution. In Europe, the union felt the bee population should be protected. The union placed a two year ban on two types of pesticides , includes clothianidin and thiamethoxam. Scientists think that those are the leading causes of the colony collapsing. Unfortunately the U.S. is still not taking action.

What you may not know is that honeybees play a huge roll in America’s agriculture, whether it is pollinating alfalfa hay to feed your horse or pollinating that apple you eat every morning for breakfast. Honeybees pollinate about one-third of crops species in the U.S. (Vanishing Bees, 2008). Bees pollinate a lot more than you would think a few more examples are almonds, avocadoes, cucumbers and peanuts.

The article begins with the statement of how falling population in bees will lead to a decline is crop production for the united states of America. This statement was announced at the American Association for the Advancement of Science or for short the AAAS. The United States relies on these bees for pollination as it is a big part of the economy bringing in over 3 billion dollars annually. It is mention how it is possible to reverse the decline in wild bees by habitat restoration. Bees are a huge part of the crop production in the united states which helps with the income and rotation of crops. In the article maps of troubled zones where placed in over 139 counties in agricultural regions of California, Pacific Northwest, the upper Midwest and Great Plains, West Texas, and Mississippi River Valley. All those places are known for their specialty crops such as almonds blueberries and apples. Those specialty crops

The Dutch have figured out how to use bumblebee as pollinators because they share so many similarities with honeybees; both honeybees and bumblebees are social nesters, their colonies are headed by a single queen, who is the main egg-layer (The Silence of the Bees, 2009). The daughters of the queen, also known as the “worker bees” do almost all the work and the drones ( which are the males) are only produced during the mating season. Perhaps the biggest consideration is an economic one. Considering the fact that bumblebees only last about two months and cost two-hundred dollars to rent per colony, whereas honeybees can last up to several months with colony rentals running only one-hundred to one-hundred and forty dollars. As a depressing result, the use of bumblebee pollination is usually confined to high-value crops like tomatoes. Clearly, the use of bumblebees is a step in the right direction, but not a final

The economic worth of global food production supported by animal pollination is at a whopping $265 billion dollars. Bee’s themselves are responsible for the harvest of crops such as nuts, melons and berries, and plays varying roles in the production of citrus fruits, apples, onions, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, courgettes, peppers, aubergines, avocados, cucumbers, coconuts, tomatoes and broad beans, as well as coffee and cocoa. ( Yes, that’s right without bee’s you wouldn’t be able to relax to/enjoy the sweet taste of, of a hot cup of chocolate after a long winter day). but with bee’s in consistent decline what does this mean for a growing population. Fewer bee’s would mean most likely result in higher prices for fruits, and vegetables. Less food available for mass consumption. So what can we do? In order to reverse the damage done to our bee populations, it is important that we now as a community make steps to encourage ecologically safe farming practices. That means start grocery shopping regionally, and locally and when the holiday/winter season is over and spring rolls around reduce the everyday use of pesticides, and other stuff while

In a statistical study done it was found; “The economic value of U.S. crops that benefit from honeybee pollination has been estimated at $15 billion annually. In 2006 the California almond export crop alone was valued at $1.9 billion and required more than one million bee colonies for pollination”. (Dainat) With keeping the fact that plants that need honeybees into in mind, the impact of honeybees in modern agriculture is significantly large as many places around the world rely on beekeepers for honey, as well as pollination services (Dainat). A main statement often brought up regarding CCD is Einstein’s assumption about the human race eradicating shortly after the bees. A lot of what humans eat consist of many items that are only produced due to pollination. A Canadian committee regarding agriculture stated; “Approximately a third of the human diet comes directly or indirectly from insect-pollinated plants, with the annual value of bee pollination in Canada an estimated $2 billion. The majority of flowering plants require pollination to reproduce, and bees are responsible for about 70 per cent of that pollination.” In regards to the whole world, it is estimated from the same study that the bees contribution to food production worldwide stands at about two hundred billion. (“Save the bees, save

Bees are vital to our very survival, pollinating the plants our food and we ourselves consume daily. Their pollination is worth billions of dollars each year, and are imperative to subsistence farmers who have no other way to feed their families and villages. Commercial farmers depend on the bees to pollinate their large crops, worth uncountable amount of money.

There are several different species of insect pollinators, but the bees in general make up sixty-two percent of them. Honeybees make up thirty-nine percent of that number, and the other twenty-three is composed of several different species of bees. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one-third of the homo-sapiens diet is insect pollinated and honeybees are accountable for eighty percent of the pollination of that one-third. The population of the honeybees in the United States has been noticeably declining from the late 1990 's, so the threat to the majority of the world food supply is slowly increasing as our pollinators population decreases.

Honey bees, feared by the misinformed and admired by the intelligent, are dying. The interest in bees from many environmentalists is not for a sudden cause, as this issue is not new to the world. Honey bees as a population have been in decline for years but have yet to reach the endangered species list anywhere in the United States except for Hawaii. Many people kill bees that buzz around joyfully, simply because they are afraid of being stung by them; however, a vast majority of bees do not sting and the others do not care. This unfortunate commonality is not even one of the top causes of the worldwide epidemic of honey bees. Although bees are jokingly idolized on the internet in pictures and videos as a result of a popular children’s movie, their population decline is in fact quite serious. Honey bees and other pollinators like birds and insects ensure the pollination of flowering plants and crops all around the globe. Not only do honey bees pollinate plants that produce the foods that humans eat, but they also pollinate trees that produce clean oxygen for Earth. Without honey bees, the world as we know it could soon end, due to carbon dioxide pollution and lack of farmable foods. The population of honeybees and other important pollinator-bee species is dwindling due to a dilemma known to scientists as colony collapse disorder (CCD) because of the use of bee-killing pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, the decrease of flower meadows in the world, and the general increase